Weingarten Touts Pay And School Gains, Nearing Exit

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow A FAREWELL WITH GUSTO: 'We have taken giant steps to improve faltering schools and ensure that all students have well-prepared Teachers,' Randi Weingarten tells United Federation of Teachers delegates in announcing she is stepping down. 'Rather than resist change, we have led it.' And referring to major salary gains over the past seven years, she added, 'we sent a message that teaching is serious work deserving of serious respect.'

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten June 25 announced her resignation to delegates, citing higher salaries for members and improvements in student achievement during her 12-year reign while noting that the union would "have to find new ways, particularly in this economy, to maintain and build on our hard-fought gains."

She will depart on July 31, to concentrate full-time on her position as president of the American Federation of Teachers, to which she was elected a year ago. Her career path tracks those of her predecessors, Albert Shanker and Sandra Feldman, who stewarded both unions before making the full move to Washington.

DENIS HUGHES: 'Randi's the gold standard.'

 

 

Mulgrew Likely Successor

The UFT's executive board is expected to anoint Vice President for Career and Technical High Schools Michael Mulgrew as her successor at some point in July. Ms. Weingarten created the title of Chief Executive Officer for him when she was elected to the AFT, making him the overwhelming favorite to succeed her. Whoever is chosen will serve the rest of Ms. Weingarten's term before running for a full term in April 2010.

In her goodbye address to delegates, Ms. Weingarten said, "No one has a better job than I, working at the vortex between public education and the labor movement, the two most powerful engines for social and economic justice."

She continued, "We have taken giant steps to improve faltering schools and ensure that all students have well-prepared Teachers. . . we have not been defensive when so-called reformers wanted to see our profession change. Rather than resist change, we have led it."

After serving for two years as the union's outside labor counsel, Ms. Weingarten joined the UFT as a bargaining attorney in 1986 and later taught social studies at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn from 1991 until 1997, making her eligible to seek union office. She assumed the presidency at that time after her mentor Sandra Feldman moved on to the AFT full-time.

Pay Gains Boosted Staff Quality

Under her leadership, especially during the administration of Mayor Bloomberg when pay rose 43 percent, Teacher salaries jumped markedly, with top pay slightly exceeding $100,000, while the city and union have experimented with school-based merit pay and the expansion of standardized testing. The improved pay rates helped recruit good instructors after years in which nearly 20 percent of the teaching force lacked state certification.

"I make no apologies for focusing so much energy over my tenure to trying to make our members' salaries and benefits more competitive," Ms. Weingarten said in her speech. "It is sad but true that in our society there is no dignity without economic dignity and no respect without economic respect."

The UFT also added 28,000 home day-care providers to its ranks in October 2007, thus surpassing District Council 37 as the largest municipal union in New York City.

Two days prior to announcing her departure, Ms. Weingarten negotiated a new Tier 5 pension with the city, keeping the right for Teachers to retire at 55 with a full allowance but requiring new hires to contribute an additional 3 percent of salary to the retirement system from their 11th through 27th years of service.

Unfinished Contract Business?

Negotiation of the union's contract, which expires in October, will be left to her successor, although rumors abound that the framework of the deal has already been put to bed with the Mayor's Office.

As head of the AFT, Ms. Weingarten has already begun to forge a relationship with President Obama, searching for middle ground on some of his ideas for education reform that would have been antithetical to Teachers in the past, such as expansion of merit pay and tougher standards for gaining tenure.

"Unlike the Bush Administration, President Obama has repeatedly stated that we need to do this with Teachers, not to them," she said in her speech. "But he has asked us, and you see this daily, to consider things that may, and in the past have, make us uncomfortable."

Talking to reporters after the speech, she said, "I think the school system and I think the union's better days are ahead of it, but I do think we turned the corner in terms of achievement in New York."

Rubber Room Worries

She acknowledged continuing problems for her members like the Absent Teacher Reserve, a pool of close to 1,000 Teachers excessed out of the system who have trouble getting re-hired, and the continuing prevalence of "rubber rooms," where Teachers awaiting arbitration of disciplinary cases often languish for many months, earning full salary but unable to work.

"I want to see a day when Teachers, all Teachers, are treated with the respect to which they are entitled," she said. "I want to see a day where we never have this debate about ATRs and whether or not someone who's been displaced through no fault of their own can't secure another job because their salaries are too high."

She also noted wryly that because of her upcoming status as AFT President, "I am now an ATR...when you are on a union leave, you don't have the kind of seniority that you had beforehand. So I am now the most-junior social studies Teacher at Clara Barton High School."

She could not resist a parting shot at her old sparring partners a few blocks up Broadway, saying, "even now, in retrospect, I often giggle that Michael Bloomberg and Joel Klein pretend that those very rancorous contract battles were not rancorous in 2002 and 2005. I laugh a lot that the Chancellor runs around the country taking credit for all the negotiations we did."

Praised By Mayor, Governor

City officials and union heads lined up to offer statements of praise for Ms. Weingarten. "Randi has been a big part of many of the reforms we have implemented over the past seven years—and a big part of the incredible turnaround our schools have made," the Mayor said. "I look forward to continuing to work with her as she partners with the Obama Administration to replicate our reforms all over the country."

Governor Paterson said, "She is an innovative leader, a no-nonsense reformer, a tough negotiator and someone I am proud to call my friend. During her tenure at the United Federation of Teachers, she has led the effort to forge strong ties between parents, communities and teachers, and she has broken new ground on major reforms."

Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association President Harry Nespoli, who succeeded Ms. Weingarten last year as chair of the Municipal Labor Committee, which she headed for 10 years, said, "The measure of labor leaders is whether they serve their members well. Randi Weingarten ...receives the highest marks. Her effort, dedication, and success on behalf of those she represented was outstanding. We all appreciate her accomplishments."

"When it comes to labor leaders, Randi is the gold standard," said New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes. "She knows how to bring people together, forge consensus and most importantly, get things done."

Foe: Hard Worker, Responsive

Even James Eterno, who has been selected by the dissident Independent Community of Educators-Teachers for a Just Contract slate to run for UFT president against Ms. Weingarten's successor, offered some guarded praise. "She certainly was a tireless leader who worked very hard. Even someone like me in the opposition would get in touch with her, she would answer. Even if she didn't agree with you, she'd give you an answer," he said.

"Our union is a vibrant democracy. You've just seen a thousand delegates inside, and we always have a protest outside, and one of the reasons we do is because we listen," Ms. Weingarten said when asked about internal opposition. "I'm glad that they feel they can complain here." Her goodbye speech was given multiple standing ovations by delegates, with one interjection on mayoral control being quickly shouted down.

When asked about regrets, Ms. Weingarten cited the old standard of the union's work never being done. "I'd love to see a day where Teachers are the highest-paid professionals, where they compete with basketball players and baseball players in terms of salaries. So there's a lot more work to be done," she said.

"But people have a confidence about public education now, they have a confidence that things can be different."